Five Tweeting Musicians Worth Following

Boy oh boy, Rocks Off is getting carried away with this Twitter business. As addictive as it is, though, it's not without its disappointments. We were amazed and flattered when Bjork decided to follow us, and then just a little heartbroken when a quick glance at her tweets en masse reveals her account is most likely run by an assistant/label wonk/possible bot; it consists almost completely of plugs for her concerts and releases, nary a hint of the Ice-English babble we've come to love from the little pixie.

To add to the grief, we found out Nick Cave's wasn't really Nick Cave; our first hint was when we finally looked at his profile and saw his name was listed as "Fake Nick Cave". If it had been the man himself, it would have qualified as one of the best examples of self-referential genius of all time. Sample tweet: "@LisslaLissar Polly Jean's cat always enjoyed 'Sweetheart Come.' I wrote the Boatman's Call for her, you know. For the cat." However, setbacks aside, Rocks Off has found some genuinely readable Twitter feeds that, by all appearances, are written by the artists themselves.

Internet-famous folk rocker responsible for "Re: Your Brains" and the gorgeous folk-pop rendition of "Baby Got Back" (above), Coulton tweets with his trademark goofy humor. Unlike some other artists, he takes almost nothing seriously, and his tweets are a welcome spitball in the face of his more serious brethren.

Sample tweet: "Just bought new unscented trash bags to throw my scented ones away in. Later I will be water boarding a baby seal with crude oil."

Tha Doggfather's tweets are mainly boisterous responses to other people he follows, which is unusual for someone his caliber of famous. Punctuated by only the occasional plug, his Snoop-slang intensive replies are almost cryptic in nature; you want to go visit the people he's talking to just so you know what the hell Snoop is so excited about.

Yeah, The former Soul Coughing frontman has had a nice long career flinging stream-of-conscious screwballs into the ether; following him on Twitter is pretty much getting a front-seat view inside the mind that brought us lyrics like "I absorb trust like a love rhombus/ I feel I must elucidate/ I ate the chump with guile/ Quadrilateral I was, now I warp like a smile." If that doesn't sound like pure gold to you, maybe we shouldn't be friends anymore.

Sample tweet: "Will write two Drug Memoirs, one real and one fake, and NOT TELL YOU WHICH IS WHICH."

We have always been rooting for Lily Allen. Her combination of cute, snot, and just enough brains to put an effective bashing to whoever draws her ire has us, we're not gonna lie, a little enraptured. It was with great relief, then, that after we stumbled across a two-years-abandoned Lily Allen account, we soon came across the account that was unmistakably hers. Now we're getting brief but first-hand accounts of much of the trouble she gets into. Read it in Lily's voice; it'll get you through your day.

Sample tweet: "PETA , By the way my coat isn't real fur, but it was bloddy (sic) expensive. Cover me in paint and I WILL send you the bill."

Former - current? No one seems sure - Throwing Muses frontwoman, now a successful solo artist (and relapsed punk rocker with trio 50 Foot Wave), Hersh's tweets aren't just worthwhile because she links to a new free-for-download song every month, she also brings the engagingly esoteric conversations and goings-on of her daily life to the feed.

Recently she informed everyone that she discovered something that looked like a bomb in her recording studio. If we were lucky enough to have Ms. Hersh follow us, we would have suggested it was probably some antique instrument frequent collaborator Andrew Bird left behind, something nobody else would even recognize but that he can no doubt play expertly. Fortunately, she soon informed us "well, it didn't explode when i touched it, whatever it was".

Sample tweet: jesse wants to know the funnier shank: screwdriver or palette knife? (an hour later) he went with the palette knife.